8.31.2017

Culture Days is back! Culture Days is a collaborative nationwide initiative that's been welcoming public participation in arts and culture since 2010. Everyone can participate whether you're already passionate about the arts or interested in discovering something new.

Why not join in the fun - 3 days of free activities and performances September 29th, 30th and October 1st, 2017. Find kewl events in your hood at www.culturedays.ca.

Culture Days Crafternoons
I'll be working the craft booth at the Culture Days kick off in The Shipyards. See you Friday, September 29th from 5pm to 7pm.

Culture Jam Upcycling Workshop
I'll be hosting a kid friendly Culture Days Crafternoon on Saturday, September 30th. Details to come!

Trash to Treasure Workshop
I'll be hosting an adult friendly Culture Days Crafternoon on Saturday, September 30th. Details to come!

I'm super thrilled to still be part of this awesome event! Here I am back in 2013 as the inaugural BC Ambassador. I feel so honoured to have been a spokesperson and community mobilizer for BC Culture Days!

8.26.2017

A couple of weeks ago I checked out the Vancouver Mural Fest. It was awesome! And I got to see a few crafty peeps - Norb and Rebekah from The Hive Printing, Irina from Frameworq and FabCycle plus take in all of the murals. All the kewl kids were out for amazing murals! And the booths, food trucks, sunshine and live action art making. Wow!

Here's Irina at the Coze Designs booth with the Community Scrap RUG Weaving project. Leanne from Coze Designs spearheaded this fun idea.

People dropped by the booth and chose scrap fabric to add to the weaving.

The booth was a hot spot of upcycling awesomeness!

Yay for Irina and Leanne...

So much upcycling inspiration!

And other crafty, upcycling items.

Here I am with Irina showcasing the community weaving project. Such an amazing idea!

We also dropped by the Maker Education in Action event at the Centre for Digital Media. And of course we saw Emily Smith whose involved in tons of maker events and happenings throughout Vancouver.

What an inspiring day! Here's to free community engaging events. This was so much fun!

8.23.2017

RE/PURPOSE is hosting an open house on September 10th. It's going to be upcycling awesomeness! There will be a few local makers, crafters, repairers, community builders and more. I'll be there hosting a craft table. We'll be repurposing finds from the store.

A week or so ago I popped into RE/PURPOSE to start gathering ideas and materials. I was hoping it would inspire that perfect DIY for the event. There were tons of door knobs for a DIY organizer...

Colourful tiles for fridge magnets...

Cork boards that could be stencilled...

Or these bigger tiles that could be turned into coasters with a funky design stencilled on them with Sharpies...

So many options!

I'd love to refinish a chair or dresser during the event like this item. Cleaning up the finish then adding funky drawer pulls would do wonders for this dresser!

8.01.2017

Last week I partnered with North Vancouver Recreation and Culture for a craft date as part of their Volunteer Appreciation event. The theme for the event was Hawaiian and they wanted volunteers to make their own lanterns.

We decided on a simple DIY using popsicle sticks, wax paper and crayon shavings. This is a fun and easy project that looks pretty darn awesome. First step was buying my first pack of crayons in decades!

I used a pencil sharpener to create shavings that I placed on the wax paper.

Once I had enough crayon shavings I then folded the wax paper over the shavings. I was ready to iron the wax paper!

I placed the wax paper between 2 sheets of Kraft paper then ironed the paper on a low heat. Depending on how big the crayon shavings are you may need to iron over the wax paper a few times.

Once the wax paper was prepped I then created the 4 sides of the lantern using 4 popsicle sticks each. You can use Mod Podge but I used my glue gun to adhere the popsicle sticks together.

Then I Mod Podged the popsicle sticks and pressed the wax paper against the glued sticks and allowed the glue to dry.

Once the glue was dry I then trimmed the wax paper.

Meanwhile I ended up making another sample using tissue paper and patterned origami paper. This is such a simple project that looks FAB!

Next was gluing the 4 sides together. I ended up trimming a bamboo skewer to help strengthen the corners of the lantern. I glued the trimmed skewer to one side then glued the other side.

I thought using the skewer would help reenforce the corners of the lantern.

Here are my sample lanterns...

Now I was ready to add some light. I bought a pack of LED lights and tested my DIY lanterns.

The wax paper and crayon looks so stunning!

I might do this DIY again... It just looks pretty darn funky!

I added a butterfly to this lantern. The origami and tissue paper are an elegant option for the lanterns.

And here are a couple of the volunteers making lanterns. Got to say the lanterns were a hit!

Thanks to NVRC for another fun event! Stay tuned for updates... Looks like I'll be teaching classes through NVRC this fall. Yahoo!

Denise Corcoran (aka Thrifty By Design) is a local author, crafter, upcycler and workshop facilitator based in North Vancouver, BC. Her passion is to turn 'junk' into new and funky pieces. She shares her enthusiasm for crafting and upcycling by facilitating 'Crafternoons' throughout Vancouver.